Abstract

Born in the East, Islam was successfully expanded to Spain, a strong Christianity based country in the West. The civilization of this nation has encouraged the development of Europe in many ways, especially in the area of science and technology. The development of culture and civilization in Europe was undeniably connected to the existence of Islamic government in Spain. When Muslims rule this country many Europeans tempted to learn and study in Spain. At this classical period, Islam reached their golden era. Spain had become the central of Islamic civilization. From this fact, there are several important questions arise worth discussed in this essay, firstly, the background of the Islamic expansion to Spain and the dynamic development of Islam in this country that resulted in a great success.In this article, the writer applies historical approach using historical data from various history literature sources. In general, there are two conclusions. First of all, the expansion of Islamic government to Spain was motivated by the development of Islamic government in North Africa. Therefore, the expansion to Europe through Spain was unavoidable. Furthermore, Spain is the nearest region to North Africa and the power of Gothic Kingdom ruled this region was weakened. Second, the development of Islam in Spain was about 500 years and had reached its peak of supremacy when it was under the Abdurrahman III command. Although Islam, finally, was expelled from Spain after the fall of Islamic government, the Islamic culture has triggered European society renaissance.